New York's Political Parties Vie for Votes of Immigrants

By ALISON MITCHELL

Published: July 4, 1992

In his crusade to rebuild New York's tattered Republican Party, William D. Powers has sought out Hispanic workers at the Hunts Point market in the Bronx, huddled with Iranian emigres in Manhattan and held countless meetings with Korean immigrants in Queens. He has even found himself urging the South Korean President to allow Koreans who become American citizens to maintain inheritance rights in their former homeland.

This might seem to be decidedly foreign turf for a state Republican chairman who used to be the party leader of largely rural upstate Rensselaer County. But Mr. Powers's pilgrimages are just one sign of the change that a record wave of immigration is bringing to the political life of New York City.

With the foreign-born now making up more than a quarter of the city's population, the practitioners of New York's distinctive and sometimes divisive brand of ethnic politics are reaching out into uncharted territory, after immigrants who could one day be as much of a force as the turn-of-the century immigrants who gave political muscle to the Democratic machine of Tammany Hall and gave city politics a decidedly Irish cast.

Tantalized by the newcomers, Democrats and Republicans alike are mounting voter registration drives and outreach efforts that could help decide whether the Democrats keep their traditional hold over New York's immigrants or the Republicans can make substantial inroads into some new ethnic groups to breathe fresh life into the party.

Politicians who have mastered such New York intricacies as balancing the black and Jewish votes, who campaign by eating knishes and cannoli, these days cannot help wondering: Will Haitians show the same voting patterns as other blacks? Will the Chinese lean to the Democrats and the Koreans to the Republicans? Will the Dominicans overtake Puerto Ricans as the politically dominant Hispanic group? Where will the Russians show up on the political spectrum?

"The amount of immigration into the city is amazing," said Angelo Falcon, president of the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy, an advocacy group that analyzes voting patterns. "What it means down the line is not clear to anybody."

So far, voting strength among the immigrants, who typically must be residents for five years before they apply for citizenship, is low. Hispanic people make up nearly a quarter of the city's population and have composed 12 to 15 percent of the turnout in recent city elections.

But the immigration is already having its effect. Deputy Mayor Bill Lynch, the chief political strategist for Mayor David N. Dinkins, recalled the axiom that a New York politician must visit Ireland, Israel and Italy.

"I argue that now they've got to go to Israel, Africa, Puerto Rico, Ireland and Italy," he said. "And you might have to reach into the Dominican Republic and in the future you may have to reach into Asia. This is fast becoming an international city and not an international city that's just European."

Even at their current voting rate, Hispanic New Yorkers are already a swing bloc -- particularly in a race where the bulk of the black vote might go to Mr. Dinkins and much of the white vote to a white opponent. And so, more than a year before the mayoral election, the three probable major candidates are already jousting for the Hispanic vote. Going (Far) For the Vote

Mr. Dinkins, who won nearly 65 percent of the Hispanic vote in his 1989 campaign but has had increasingly testy relations with Hispanic leaders, visited Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in May.

His staff has prepared a background paper showing that $11 billion of the city's $29 billion budget falls under the jurisdiction of Hispanic officials. And he has called for 20 percent of city contracts to go to businesses owned by women or minorities.

City Council President Andrew J. Stein has also visited Puerto Rico twice after natural disasters. And he has accused the Mayor of failing to provide Hispanic groups with a fair share of city contracts for human services.

For his part, aides of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican who captured about 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in 1989, note that he does free legal work for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund. And they say he is planning to set up outreach centers in Hispanic neighborhoods.

The last time New York saw such an influx of immigrants, nearly a century ago, was before civil service laws and social welfare programs. Tammany Hall courted Irish newcomers with jobs and handouts.

"We gave an incentive for the average citizen -- the poor -- to get involved in politics," said James R. McManus, a Manhattan Democratic district leader whose great uncle was a fabled district leader of Tammany Hall. "You'd get a job for the son, a little favor here, a little favor there. They'd give you a turkey."

These days Democrats have continued to seek the immigrant vote. Mr. Dinkins 1989 mayoral campaign borrowed much of the structure of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential primary apparatus and reached out to immigrant communities.

Democrats contend that immigrants seeking to assimilate will almost inevitably turn to them.

"Newcomers try to buy into the power structure usually," said Norman Adler, a political consultant.